Hello NB Forum!
I recently purchased and am now underway on the Deluxe kit, with the Chinook IPA recipe kit. I am brand-new to homebrewing and have been fanatical about reading and hopefully following the instructions, and watching the excellent NB how-to videos. I am so excited to get started in this hobby!
Today is Wednesday and we boiled on Saturday, finishing in the evening. I’ve got the primary carboy down in a storage closet in the garage, which I figured was the coolest and most consistent temperature room in our place. We live in Torrance, CA and it is mid June, so it is starting to warm up out here. I’ve had good amounts of bubbling from the airlock thought it has slowed down somewhat, now that we are about four days in. I notice the wort is churning around less than it did in the first two days (Sunday and Monday).
The main questions I have are:
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The temperature sticker (thermometer) that came with the kit shows the carboy at a consistent 74 degrees F. I understand that is a bit on the warm side. Hopefully this will be OK given the yeast and ingredients that came in the kit?
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In the future, should I consider using a different strain of yeast for brewing here in SoCal, especially during the warmer months? (We may end up moving to a different part of LA for work in the coming months, and if we end up in a warmer part of town (less coastal) I would probably try to set up something in a closet inside a bedroom and have the AC going for the duration of the summer …)
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I’ve been trying to figure out the timelines for my batch. I will go re-watch the video again, I believe it mentioned waiting until the kreuzen (sp?) has settled back into the beer as being the indicator that primary fermentation has completed. Have I got that right? How long should it be in the secondary? How about in the bottles to carbonate?
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Will the warmer temperature in my “brew closet” change the length of time for either primary, secondary, or bottle conditioning?
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It seems you can rush things and come out with a sub-par product, but can it go sideways if you wait too long in any given step as well?
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I read that UV light is bad for the yeast so we are keeping it in the dark closet. However I have been sneaking in once/a couple of times a day to peek in on the process. Are a couple of minutes of incandescent light / flashlight light going to harm the beer?
Any other newbie tips or advice is surely appreciated.
I am not in a hurry, I know this process takes time and I’m willing to wait for everything to go as well as it can.
Thanks in advance,
-Mark